Practice Advisory for the Prevention, Diagnosis, and Management of Infectious Complications Associated With Neuraxial Techniques: An Updated Report by the American Society of Anesthesiologists Task Force on Infectious Complications Associated With Neuraxial Techniques and the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine

This article is an update to the 2009 (published 2010) American Society of Anesthesiologists' (ASA's) “Practice Advisory for the Prevention, Diagnosis, and Management of Infectious Complications Associated With Neuraxial Techniques by the ASA Task Force on Infectious Complications Associated With Neuraxial Techniques.” In this context “infectious complications” are serious infections that result from the use of neuraxial techniques, which range from spinal, epidural, or combined spinal-epidural administration of analgesics, anesthetics, or steroids; lumbar puncture/spinal tap; epidural blood patch; intrathecal chemotherapy; epidural lysis of adhesions; spinal/epidural injection of contrast agents for imaging; lumbar/spinal drainage catheters; to spinal cord stimulation trials and beyond. These infectious complications range from epidural, spinal, or subdural abscess; paravertebral, psoas, or paraspinous abscess; bacteremia; discitis; encephalitis; fungemia; meningitis; osteomyelitis; sepsis; or viremia.
Source: Survey of Anesthesiology - Category: Anesthesiology Tags: Regional Anesthesia and Pain Control Source Type: research